Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) Preview

Introduction:

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) was announced without much fanfare at the MWC expo last month, and we even had a jolly hands-on time with it, as well as with its smaller sibling, the Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0). It is coming as a slightly downgraded 10-incher from Samsung, for the sake of affordability, and we have a preview unit to check out in the office.

Did the allegedly lower price tag than the Galaxy Tab 10.1 made Samsung's new tablet compromise with its hardware and design features? Read on our quick preview of the non-final unit to know roughly what to expect when it launches...

Design:

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) comes at 0.38” (9.7mm) - a wee bit thicker than the Galaxy Tab 10.1, but not by much and is still a very slim and easy to hold tablet. “Affordable” is not associated with premium materials as a principle, and the Tab 2 does indeed sport an all-plastic construction, which is, however, pretty sturdy in our prototype – no creases or squeaking sounds.



The dark gray back cover doesn't flex, and the tablet is surrounded by a faux-metal rim in a darker gray. The rounded corners and a small circle in the middle of the upper back for the 3MP camera without a flash complete a very typical Samsung slate design heritage. The tablet also hasa VGA camera in the front for video chat.

The tablet is actually pretty light with 20.74oz (588g) of weight, ergonomic to hold, and the stereo speakers on both sides of the screen are brought higher, so you don't cover them with your thumbs while working with the tablet.


The power/lock button and the volume rocker at the top are easy to find and press, with good tactile feedback, and the top also hosts the protected microSD and SIM card slots, as well as the audio jack.


The only other opening is the proprietary 30-pin connector at the bottom for syncing and charging, which is the same as on Samsung's other tablets.



Display:

Samsung's own PLS-LCD technology is present on the Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) meaning brighter displays with better color gamut, which are on top of that cheaper to produce than the pesky IPS-LCDs. PLS-LCD also means very good viewing angles and indeed, the contrast and colors didn't degrade even beyond 170 degrees by much. The screen is with rich colors and decent outdoor visibility.


The 10.1” screen on this slate sports 1280x800 pixels of resolution, which was the norm on 10-inchers before the Full HD displays hit this year. The 149ppi pixel density means you will see some pixelation here and there, but if you are not spoiled by a high-res tablet display yet, you'd likely be nonplussed here.

Interface and Functionality:

TouchWiz over Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is the name of the game on the Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1), and in our prototype unit Samsung hadn't skin the stock interface fully yet. Bear in mind that the amount of UI overlay and/or widgets might change in the final version, but for now it seems like a good mix of ICS UI and Samsung's own custom touches, like the Game, Music and Readers “Hubs”, plus some proprietary apps sprinkle, and additional connectivity toggles in the notification area. The Mini Apps drawer for fast launch was missing from our prototype, but it was on the unit we played with at the MWC, so it's a fair bet it will be present in the final edition. The app launcher is unchanged, but it sports icons for proprietary Samsung apps like the Hubs, file browser, and photo and video editors.


The Contacts app syncs with your Google account as well as with your social networking buddies, and, since the tablet has a version with a SIM card slot, you can carry conversations with them over the cellular networks.


One of the most useful proprietary apps from Samsung that will be on this tablet is the Pen memo app. The Tab 2 (10.1) is not equipped with a stylus, but it still allows you to doodle with your finger, choosing a variety of pen/brush sizes and colors. The S Planner is a souped-up version of the default calendar in ICS, offering you to select a day in the month view and all events scheduled for it will appear at the bottom.

The Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) is powered by a 1GHz dual-core TI OMAP 4430 processor and has 1GB of RAM, so the final UI should be smooth sailing, but we'll spare judgment for the review unit.

Since we have a Texas Instruments processor inside, the GPU is listed as PowerVR SGX540, the same one we have in the Galaxy Nexus, and a step away from the ARM Mali GPU units Samsung uses in its Exynos processor line. TI's OMAP family was chosen as the banner processor for Android Ice Cream Sandwich, so it has obviously been easier for Samsung to just slap what it's already worked on.

Internet and Connectivity:

The browser is your standard Android fare on a dual-core processor, meaning quick rendering of Adobe Flash and various scripts quickly. Page navigation like pinch-to-zoom, double tap, scrolling and panning around was very smooth, even on our prototype.


You can now open tabs in Incognito mode and there are dedicated brightness/contrast presets from within the browser settings you can choose with one tap, based on the level of power saving you want to achieve.

The Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) has a version with a SIM card slot and 21Mbps download speeds, and also sports the usual plethora of connectivity options we've come to expect from Samsung, like Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 3.0, A-GPS, FM Radio and DLNA media streaming, which is managed by the AllShare app.

Camera:

The 3MP camera on the Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) is capable of shooting HD video, and has a variety of scene modes and effects you can apply to the picture-taking experience, like Smile Shot and Panorama mode. We are embedding some photo and video samples below as a rough guide what you can expect from the final unit.

The tablet is capable of supporting DivX/Xvid videos right out of the box and it plays any of those you throw at it, up to 1080p definition, so if you add a 32GB microSD card to the 16GB or 32GB built-in, you'd have a pretty substantial movie library to carry with you around and watch to pass the time.

There are proprietary Samsung apps for photo and video editing – Photo Studio and Movie Maker – which sport a ton of features and effects for some on-the-fly editing.



The music player has plenty of functions attached to it, including equalizer presets and mock surround sound modes. The two speakers flanking the screen are strong enough for good volume output and don't overly distort the sound even when maxed out.



Expectations:

If you have been waiting on a breathtaking quad-core Android tablet with 1080p display from Samsung, the Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) is not it. Despite that the “2” implies an upgrade, it is actually inferior to the original Galaxy Tab 10.1 in certain aspects, so its main advantage remains Android ICS.

It, however, shapes up to be a very capable workhorse, one that will burn through your daily routine like Internet browsing with full Adobe Flash support and watching DivX/Xvid movies right out of the box. Plus, it has a hearty 7000mAh battery, so it should be serving those videos or web pages to your eyeballs for many hours on end.

That is what most users require from their Android slates, and, while the Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) might not wow you with more premium build materials or a high-res display, it will certainly get the job done pretty well, and you can't request much more from an affordable Ice Cream Sandwich tablet.

The price will thus be what will ultimately make or break the Tab 2 (10.1), and we are eagerly awaiting for Samsung to give more details on it to gauge if its new 10-incher stands a chance in the ocean of Android slates.